An open letter to the leaders, stakeholders and executives of the SLPP

We the under-mentioned registered members of the SLPP, wish to forward this message to the leadership of our great party, calling on all our leaders to come together and take immediate concrete and concerted steps towards addressing the deepening problems affecting our party, and crippling our country.

We would like to emphasise here that our use of the term “leadership” is wholly inclusive, and is meant to extend to “every single member of the SLPP National Executive Council (NEC), as well as our Members of Parliament, all aspiring Flagbearers , and any other senior stakeholder who is in a leadership position but not specifically referred to here”.

As a message from our hearts, we believe that the tone of this letter should unabashedly reflect the depth of our feelings towards the very disconcerting issues, affecting our people and our politics.

Issues which seem to be largely pouring out of the central governance pot, yet allowed to freely overflow onto our party’s political plate. Our own “internal problems” are acting as easy receptacle, if not a veritable fuel, to a growing mess from without.

Following deep and meaningful engagements with a very broad spectrum of our party base, and a series of informative interviews with a sampled representation of senior stakeholders on the SLPP “DEBATE NOW” forum, we have been made even more acutely aware of the growing levels of frustration that has taken such deep and damaging roots within our party.

Through these constructive discussions and debates, we have been able to explore different perspectives and have been sufficiently moved to voluntarily dedicate ourselves to the tasking search for tangible solutions.

WE DEMAND SOLUTIONS

The general consensus seems to be that the solution to our party’s problems is not growing thick in some far-flunked magical wand-waving Eldorado planet, where grasses grow into golden nuggets and creamy milk pours out from the horns of rock-munching cows.

The answers lie, literally, in the palms of those who are supposed to be managing, or aspiring to manage our affairs.

In view of this sobering assessment, we would like to make it crystal clear to the party leadership that we demand SOLUTIONS. And we want them like NOW.

We “the ordinary followers” are utterly sick and tired, and completely fed-up, with the current downward spiral of our country.

We are equally extremely appalled at the ongoing paralysis within our SLPP leadership, which we believe is contributing immensely to the national putrefaction.

SILENCE IS CRIMINAL

We consider the almost total silence of our party, on vital national issues, as a situation that is lending very weighty credence to the loud rumours of possible “criminal collaboration” between sections of our party leadership and a heartless APC cabal that rules through a mafia governance style, which has seen the collection and disappearance of monies meant for the sick, the dying, the dead, and the barely surviving orphans of our suffering land.

There is a thickening layer of worrying conjecture, carved out of the incredibly lacklustre attitude of our SLPP leadership that has resulted in the creation of this “collaborative cloud” of presumed collusion, which needs to be convincingly dissolved in order to restore general confidence in the leadership of our party, and in a system so ruthlessly debauched.

The rejuvenative feat could only be successfully achieved by a definite show of willingness and an unmistakeable manifestation of the ability to stand up for the issues that matter to the masses, who always suffer.

FEAR IS DISABLING

For some of us, any rational solution to the evidenced paralytic detached stance of our SLPP leadership on the many issues of such high national gravitas, should start with a convincing erasure of any shade of spinelessness that causes men to melt and drown their principles in the face of fear.

Because the truth is that fear in itself does not behove any respectable description of a serious leadership disposition. Paradoxically, fear is the greatest cultivator of a budding dictatorship.

Whatever the explanations, it is totally mind blowing that in the face of such numerous calamitous political manipulations and economic mismanagement of our nation by this APC sect, there has hardly been any significant coordinated effort by our party to effectively highlight and sufficiently challenge the issues.

Indeed, our party’s shocking inertia in the face of constant violations of our democratic ethics and flagrant flouting of the rights of individuals, is acting as immense encouragement to the APC to carry on with their malevolent machinations and blatant violations.

If we could define the APC as a gang of veritable criminals, then we must also accept that, in the eyes of the abandoned masses, the SLPP is increasingly looking like an assemblage of aiders and abettors.

The fact is that none of us can protest ignorance of the speed with which our country is being driven down the drains.

No one can plead innocence to the handiwork of a savage scheme of things that is draining our people of every strand of patience and faith in a system, which continues to use them as mere butter on the messy toast of those with power, and those griping for power.

A LITANY OF WOES

Thousands of our country men and women, including some of our best doctors and nurses, perished in a mysterious Ebola epidemic, which no one has cared to find out how it really started and why?

Millions of dollars of “Ebola money” has quietly disappeared into private pockets as Ebola orphans languish in the streets with no one to turn to and hardly anyone to talk for them.

Alie Kabba, one of the most potent voices within our SLPP ranks, has been dragged in and out of court by this APC regime, in what is very clearly, a political show trial.

Meanwhile, we stand aside and pretend that “Justice” would be rightly served from the dark furnaces of a judicial system that even an APC lawyer has publicly and rightly decried as “rotten to the very core”.

Our Members of Parliament, by their very docility, have been largely helping to steam –roll dubious APC nominees into all sorts of positions, without any verifiable vetting exercise. Since they took their oaths themselves, our MPs are hardly heard within the halls of parliament saying anything on anything of any significance.

Indeed, like the North Korean ships that fly our flags afar to oil our hideous wheels of graft, our MPs seem to be conveniently satisfied with their detached stance, as long as their salivating stack of salaries, emoluments, per diems and bonuses (and whatever else that could be harvested from “above”, keeps dropping down into some account somewhere on planet earth.

Let’s be frank with ourselves here, how much faith should we really continue to fritter away in a Parliament that readily collects 63 million Leones each, to see thousands of their countrymen and women die in aching vain, and starving orphans roaming the streets of a nation permanently deprived?

Is this not the same parliament which is reported to have quietly “waved off” millions of tax dollars to a dodgy-diamond company, while the denizens of the company’s operational mineral-rich district beg for bread?

Even as we write, the facts and figures of the national population census are been fraudulently manipulated, and will be thoroughly milked to the cheating advantage of the APC rogues.

And yet, our “leaders” seem to be much more interested in strategising for the political demise of each other, than facing our common problems with the necessary sobriety and diligence.

Like the legless Logus “Chinese Buses” that leaked so many million dollars, or the wingless shady “Salone Flight”, which never took off to anywhere, our entire political system is dripping pools of pus and skidding to a point of inevitable crash.

And that should be of a very serious concern to all of us, particularly those who somehow find themselves conveniently sleeping in that privileged leadership position.

For if we should allow our lethargy and criminal complacency to usher out a carte blanche to the APC’s slide to doom, then we should never ever ask who printed the RED card that took us out of the field of play and tossed sanity to the snakes.

CONCRETE STEPS TO A SANER PHASE

Instead of squandering time, wading through the endless litany of woes so deliberately manufactured by this APC government, admittedly under the very watch of our own party, we would like to point to some possible positive pathways:

– We demand that our party “leadership” assumes real LEADERSHIP role by being seen to actively and effectively address the problems referred to here and the many others not necessarily mentioned.

– That a clear, practical pathway to resolving the ongoing fratricidal Flagbearer tussle be formulated and implemented, soonest. This should include, but by no means limited to, a Peace/Unity March to be actively supported by all members of our party.

– That a Day of NATIONAL PROTEST, against the numerous misdeeds and deliberate machinations of the APC against our people and our country, be agreed and announced.

– This time, we expect positive action; not more talk.

THE CHOICE IS OURS

Over and beyond this, it is our firm submission that to forge forward, our party leadership needs to carve out a clear path that would restore genuine confidence and a winning spirit in all our party members.

And equally important, we should be seen walking that winning path together, being led by those who would like to be considered as our leaders.

The SLPP is a great party – undoubtedly. We have the right policies and a phalanx of honest men and women with the capacity to take our country in the best of directions. Our pedigree is an enviable presentation of solidity and credibility.

We have the right ideas and the patriotic spirit to match. But alas, how far and low we seem to have gone? How easily have we caused our mettle to be melted, and our merits to be mashed?

Suddenly, we have become self-skull-smashers in a suicidal game with no reliable referee or conscientious linesmen.

We have been crying for so long, we have drowned our voices in tears. Our country seems to be going nowhere respectable or desirable. We need another gear in this drive.

There is a festering gap at the very top staring down at all of us, like an infected wound, which scares the many who are watching things from down below and have seen it all before. This is a gaping gash which should not be there.

We should either move together to seal it off, or leave it wide to swallow us. Our hope is that we choose the former.

Ladies and gentlemen, you have felt strong constraint to file this petition to your party elite and militants of the SLPP. Your petition is legitimate and encouraging it is a rightful exercise of your democratic rights.

It wires a signal to your party gurus that the affairs of the party ought to be managed in a better way. I just hope that it will be given serious consideration.

The political scenario within the SLPP is rather discouraging and for years on, for reasons we all know and clearly highlighted in this petition. The internal disorder of the SLPP has contributed a lot to the APC taking the upper hand to hold the nation to ransom with patronizing style of governance.

The SLPP needs to instill within their rank and file the values of unity, respect, consideration for every individual, democratic values and common understanding among themselves. All these factors are just indispensable within a political organization in order to show good example to outsiders who may consider them fit for purpose and a government in waiting.

With this petition we are seeing the beginning of a reaction of the grass roots militants holding accountable those who occupy top positions of responsibility in the party for the ruckus situation within the organization.

Such bright example is worthy of emulation by other political parties and civil society organizations across our nation, so as to break the myth of powerful individuals above the law and the social masses, which gives way to totalitarian and dictatorial rule.

This is what is expected of the masses to lay the foundations of popular power base movements enforcing proper management of the affairs of the country, and consequently mete out to the government of the day. We must work to discourage and not to condone inappropriate attitudes by party elites or government officials.

We the people as a collective should pin down our authorities, urging them to establish functional institutions in every area of our social life. And this can only be achieved in organized collective actions within the framework of the rule of law in our democratic system and not by mere talk and intention.

After all, the masses are more powerful in united action than a handful of elites in any social organization. This democratic right must be put into use for addressing management flaws in the society.

The structural perspective and entire management of a political party is an indicator of good governance and competent leadership when they ascend to the helm of governance of the nation.

But I am afraid the SLPP party needs a total rebranding if they are to gain the support of the majority of the electorate in Sierra Leone. The sooner it is done the better.

In my modest view the emergence of a strong political party can be a driving force to getting Sierra Leone back on track to further progress and development in the country.

This is not the time to point fingers and engage in blame game. While the APC strengthens itself politically, the SLPP supporters and members are ‘cannibalising’ each other.

The party is like a weak patient – bed ridden, in intensive care and at the cusp of death. We need all stakeholders from the Berewas, Demby, Abbass Bundus, Bobson Sesay and others to meet and chart a way forward, before we can expect the people of Sierra Leone to put their trust in a party that has failed to organize itself.

The flagbearers can compete in a friendly and intelligent way that will see the party come together. A tour of the nation comprising both Bio and Yumkella for example will heal many wounds.

It is now or never, because I doubt if SLPP has the resources to sustain another 10 years in opposition.

What can I say, but to condemn the hypocrisy and latent act of the main opposition leader, who has not grown up but still learning his career pursuit, yet wants the faithful and loyal masses to follow him.

This man doesn’t know what is good leadership and good governance, but is hell bent (Paopa) on becoming the presidential candidate / flagbearer of the SLPP party. Sadly, members and elders of the party cannot tell him the truth that presidential candidacy is a one term position as stated in the SLPP Constitution.

This was lawfully demonstrated by Solomon Berewah when he lost the 2007 presidential elections, and was told that his term was over. He didn’t fight to contest the 2012 presidential elections. He resigned his opposition leadership position of the party, and a new leader was elected to contest the 2012 elections.

Now, this leader that contested the 2012 presidential election on behalf of the SLPP is not satisfied. He wants to contest the 2018 presidential election as a candidate of the SLPP party, whilst there are far more competent, highly educated and highly exposed professionals from major world agencies, etc.

These candidates are much more competent and pose a major threat to the current ruling APC party and their presidential aspirants for the 2018 elections.

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 12 April 2018: After much anticipation from the people of Sierra Leone, and criticisms too for delaying the appointment of his cabinet ministers, president Julius Maada Bio has today announced his first [Read More]

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 18 August 2017 This article was first published by the Sierra Leone Telegraph exactly five years ago, on the 16th of August 2012 to be precise. Here we are on the 18th [Read More]

John Baimba Sesay – Beijing China Sierra Leone Telegraph: 15 March 2017 Beyond the outright display of mendacious propaganda by a certain few in the opposition, Sierra Leone has beautiful stories to tell: from her [Read More]

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 3 July 2017 After months of speculation about whether and how long Dr. Kandeh Yumkella will continue to put up with the harassment and violence that he and some of his supporters [Read More]

Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella Sierra Leone Telegraph: 5 October 2016 The month of October 2016 marks 20 years since peace was restored to Sierra Leone. By 1996, half of our population was displaced and farming [Read More]

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 3 April 2015 China’s economic interests in Sierra Leone have risen by over 400% in the last five years, and this resurgence can be largely explained by its vast investment in the [Read More]

John Baimba Sesay – China Sierra Leone Telegraph: 6 August 2016 Citizen engagement is crucial to sustaining democratic governance. It allows for openness in the decision making process, and ensures trust and public confidence. Participatory [Read More]

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 01 November 2018: The former Commissioner General of Sierra Leone’s National Revenue Authority (NRA) – Ms Haja Kallah Kamara, and her former Director of Finance – Abdulai Conteh, have made out of [Read More]

Saad Barrie Sierra Leone Telegraph: 27 October 2016 The government of Sierra Leone is determined to build a new international airport in the north of the country, financed by a whopping $400 million loan from [Read More]